Earlier this month, an atmospheric teaser was leaked online, which was promptly removed by Warner Brothers. Large scale shots of urban destruction were spliced with an image of the beast roaring into the distance. It was set to a narration by the creator of the Atom Bomb,Robert Oppenheimer: “We knew the world would not be the same. Few people laughed, few people cried, most people were silent.”

‘I remembered the line from the Hindu scripture … Lord Vishnu takes on his multi-armed form and says, “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.’

Warner Brothers have created a complex network of clues in the run up to the trailer release. The site mutoreseach.netappears to be an access terminal and file database for an organisation called M.U.T.O.

Godzilla’s Twitter account has also been dropping some hints, linking readers to articles on the “cavernous wells Sima Humboldt and Sima Martel”, a Chinese sinkhole Chongquing and Turkmenistan’s “Door to Hell”. The M.U.T.O vehicles were superimposed into each accompanying image.